A man walked into the room they were sitting in and a silence befell them. They had
never seen him before, yet a familiar feeling ran down each person’s spine. He said nothing, in
fact he made no noise at all, not even that of footsteps. He was dressed in black
as they were, and his stride was calm but not arrogant. Not an eye blinked as he
crossed the room, but rather each one followed him intently, watching every step he took. A breeze
that chilled to the bone made its way into the room, following the closely watched man.
This breeze carried the stench of death on it, and it stung every nostril, burnt every throat
it invaded. Even those that wanted to cough this putrid air out of their lungs made no
such effort, for fear of gaining the attention of this eerie man, this source of fear.
The man walked down the aisle that separated the people, seemingly ignoring all but one inhabitant of
the room. When he got to the end of the aisle, he looked up to the painting
of Jesus that had been hung above the coffin that sat at the front of the room.
The coffin lay half open, with a well-dressed man lying inside. The stranger shook his head
at the sight of the painting, and returned his attention to the dearly departed. He walked around
the coffin, and everyone watched as he slid his fingers along the edge of the coffin, until he
came to a stop on the other side.
In one grand movement he spread his arms out wide and closed his eyes. His skin seemed
to fade away completely until all that was left was a pure, black skeleton. A set of
wings as dark as the darkest night unfolded from behind the apparition, spread to their fullest and
spanning the entire length of the coffin. The room remained silent as the creature gently lay it’s
dark, bony hand on the forehead of the man who had so recently died.
The room grew colder than ever, and every living man, woman, and child began to shiver, but
dare not move. The dead man’s boy shuttered violently, jerking wildly within the coffin. Then, it lay
still again. After a moment, the man’s eyes moved, blinked, and miraculously opened. The man’s long-widowed
mother gasped at the extraordinary sight, and muttered an “Oh my God”. The dark creature looked up
at this woman, into her eyes for an eternal moment, and then back at the man who
was now looking up at him. He gave a barely perceptible nod to this man, then spread
his arms and floated up, up, and dissolved through the ceiling until he was gone.
The man in the coffin sat up as his brother ran up to help him out. When
he was on his feet for the first time since his recent death, his brother asked him,
“What was that thing, the Angel of Death?”
The man looked back at his brother, his eyes wide and searching, and replied “That was Dad.”
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